Family: Phyllanthaceae |
M.G. Gilbert (1993) 1: 270-171 Plants shrubs or herbs. Shoots all similar. Leaves spirally aranged, petiolate, simple, entire. Inflorescences axillary, staminate flowers in clusters, pistillate flowers solitary. Flowers 5(-6)-merous. Staminate flowers: sepals free, imbricate, pale green with scarious margins; petals usually present; disc glands opposite sepals; stamens 5(-6), filament free or partly united, somteimes inserted on an androgynophore; anthers longitudinally dehiscent; pistillodes present. Pistillate flowers: sepals larger than in staminate flowers, green with narrow, scarious margins; petals small or absent; disc glands free or forming a ring; styles 2-fid; stigmas capitate. Fruits 3-lobed capsules; seeds 3-sided, smooth or pustulate. Andrachne includes about 25 species that grow in the tropics and subtropics of the both hemispheres, exenting tin the Mediterranian region and temperate Aisa. There are 5 species in north east Africa and Socotra plus one more in southern Africa. ©Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; reproduced with permission. Key to the species of Somaliland and Somali A. Radcliffe-Smith (1986) Andrachne. Flora of Pakistan 172: 36-42. Plants perennial herbs or shrubs, prostrate, decumbent or erect, unarmed or spinous , unisexual, with or without a simple or glandular hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, stipulate; blades simple, penninerved, margins entire. Inflorescences axillary, of peciellate flowers, males usually in clusters, females solitary. Male flowers: sepals 5(-6), free or ± so, imbricate; petals 5(-6), usually shorter than the sepals; disc-glands 5(-6), free, opposite the petals; stamens 5(-6), opposite the sepals; filaments free or partly united; anthers erect, introrse, the locules parallel, distinct, longitudinally dehiscent; pistillodes usually small and trilobate or tripartite. Female flowers: sepals usually larger than those of the male flowers; petals small, minute or absent; disc-glands 5(-6), free, opposite the petals; ovaries 3-celled, with 2 ovules per cell; styles 3, short, bifid or bipartite; stigmas capitate. Fruits globose or subglobose, dehiscing into 3 bivalved mericarps; endocarp thin, woody; seeds 2 per locule, triquetrous, pustulate, smooth or pitted, without caruncles; embryo curved, radicle long, cotyledons broad, flat. Andrachne used to be included in the Euphorbiaceae. Three species are known from Pakistan. |